By Mike Walsh
Correspondent
As senior seasons go, it’s tough to top the one authored by North Central College wrestler Robert Precin.
Precin, an Orland Park resident, won his second consecutive national championship at 133 pounds at the NCAA Division III tournament held on March 10-11 at the Berglund Center in Roanoke, Virginia. He finished unbeaten for the second consecutive season.
Precin, an Andrew graduate who also wrestled for one season at Sandburg, began his title defense with a 6-2 win over Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Tyler Fleetwood in his opening match. He then bested Dalton Rohrbaugh of York College, 3-1, in the final.
Precin is the first four-time All-American and two-time national champion in Cardinals’ history.
As a team, North Central finished fourth in the 71-team field with 63.5 points.
“Robbie has been the standard of this program the last four years,” North Central head coach Zach Cook stated on the Cardinals’ website. “It is pretty special that he is the first two-time national champion in program history and leading this program to its first team trophy is amazing.”
For his four-year career, Precin posted a record of 121-2, including 73-0 the past two seasons.
The Cardinals finished their season with a 15-3 dual-meet record while claiming the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) dual meet and tournament titles.
In the classroom, Precin was named a National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Scholar All-American for the third time in his career in 2023.
Ahn and Ahn
Wheaton College senior Abygale Ahn was chosen the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin’s Women’s Tennis Student-Athlete of the Week for the period ending March 15. For the Western Springs resident, this marked the second time this season and sixth time in her career she has received this accolade.
Ahn, a graduate of Timothy Christian, helped the Thunder post victories over Misericordia University (8-1), Piedmont University (6-3) and Wittenberg University (8-1) as she went undefeated at No. 3 singles. She also paired with Madeline Gentry to post triumphs at No. 1 doubles over Misericordia and Wittenberg.
Famous Flame
One of the top performers for the Illinois-Chicago men’s baseball team this spring has been graduate student Charlie Szykowny. The Shepard graduate and Palos Heights resident leads the Flames in slugging percentage (.561), total bases (64), RBI (26), home runs (8), runs scored (24) and hits (37).
Szykowny, a third baseman, is third on the team in batting average (.325) and has started all 28 games in which he has played. Szykowny has made three appearances on the mound for the Flames (14-14 overall, 3-6 in the Missouri Valley Conference), contributing one save.